It appears that early October's 16-day partial government shutdown was largely responsible for that uptick in the jobless rate. Meanwhile, employers showed some confidence in the economy by continuing to add to their payrolls even as lawmakers in Washington argued over the federal budget.

Other evidence of that confidence: The BLS also revised up its estimate of job growth in September. It now estimates that there were 163,000 jobs added to payrolls, not the 148,000 it originally reported.

Republican reaction comes in this statement from House Speaker John Boehner:

"While it's a good sign that more Americans found work last month than some predicted, wages are still stagnant, and millions of families and workers are facing cancellation notices and higher premiums because of Obamacare."

According to BLS: "In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 2 cents to $24.10. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 52 cents, or 2.2 percent."

The White House typically posts its reaction to the employment report here. We'll add a highlight after it's posted.

Update at 9:20 a.m. ET. Where The Jobs Were:

"The largest slice of hiring in October took place at retailers, bars and restaurants, lower-paying establishments that tend to boost hiring temporarily for the holiday season," MarketWatch writes. "Yet almost every industry aside from government added workers, the Labor Department reported."

Update at 9:12 a.m. ET. Ignore The Unemployment Rate?

Because of the skewing effects of the government shutdown, Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessell recommends (via his Twitter account) to:

By "household survey" he's referring to the data collected by BLS for its estimate of the nation's unemployment rate. As we explained earlier, furloughed federal workers were counted as unemployed last month — even though they were going to be paid retroactively and would be returning to their jobs once the partial shutdown ended.

Update at 9:03 a.m. ET. Unemployed In One Survey, Employed In The Other:

Each month the BLS does two surveys for its report — one of businesses (to generate data about payroll employment) and one of households (to produce the unemployment rate). The Times notes that:

"For the purposes of the October report, Labor Department statisticians counted furloughed [federal] workers as unemployed for the household survey but working for the employer survey. That helps explain why the growth of new jobs was so healthy but the unemployment rate climbed."

Update at 9 a.m. ET. Not Enough To Get The Fed To "Taper?"

"Today's jobs figures are surprisingly strong," The Wall Street Journal writes on its live blog of the employment news. "But they'll need to be followed up with an even better report next month for the Fed to seriously considering dialing back its $85 billion-per-month bond-buying program."

"The labor market seemed surprisingly strong during October," Conference Board economist Kathy Bostjancic says in a statement emailed to reporters. But she cautions that with surveys showing that consumer confidence is weak — meaning that their spending could also be modest at best in coming months — "employers are unlikely to be very optimistic and go out hiring many more workers."

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET. Shutdown Affected Unemployment Rate:

"The unemployment rate figure went higher," NPR's Chris Arnold tells our Newscast Desk, "but was distorted because the Labor Department did its sampling during the federal government shutdown. A lot of government workers who were not working temporarily got counted as unemployed."

According to BLS, "among the unemployed ... the number who reported being on temporary layoff increased by 448,000."